The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Catherine Afeku has been under fire for not helping project the creative arts.
Stakeholders in the creative arts industry have complained about the government’s inability to fulfil its campaign promises for the arts.
The have raised concerns about why promises like: the Creative Arts Fund, Copyright Court, Log-in system for creative artists, large-seating theatres in nine regions, among others have not seen the light of day.
The Public Relations Officer of Zylofon Cash and Managing Editor of the Publisher newspaper, Halifax Ansah Addo is the latest to goad the minister to pay more attention to the arts.
In a Facebook post, Halifax, also an artiste manager, described Afeku as the weakest link in the current government.
Read Halifax’s open letter to the minister below:
Dear Minister Afeku,
In all honesty, you certainly need to up your game in championing the concerns of the Tourism, Culture and obviously Arts sectors.
The talk, talk, talk, talk, with very insignificant or mostly no work to show is becoming your style. Walk the talk.
I am suspecting that because you are one of the ‘few women’ in government and a Parliamentarian from the Western Region, it gives your appointment a strategic combination of gender cum regional balance, a factor that has protected your continuous stay at post.
If that immunity gets into your head and you use it as a form of job protection at the expense of productivity and hard work, well, your government would pay dearly for it in no time. Let me not remind you how it affects your political career prospects.
As a Parliamentarian, you seem to be doing very well for your people. Congratulations.
As a minister, you have been a deficit and arguably, the weakest link in this government. That is disappointing. Not even the Creative Arts for Change, mafia can be proud of your records so far and aptly defend you.
They may not admit this in public because of the larger interest of the party.
Your greatest power and tool has been your eloquence in explaining away your flaws. But you cannot continue to rattle excuses when we need a real leader capable of galvanizing the arts sector into some positive action.
We need a real leader for your ministry. someone ready to work with a sense of urgency, someone in a hurry.
A leader with the ability to listen rather than assume, a leader capable of rallying the best human resources to confront our challenges rather than play politics with every issue and sweet-talk everyone into nothingness.
A leader that would lace boots, enter the fields and engage the actual sector players to work in unison in quest of lasting solutions to the avoidable domestic and suicidal problems we ourselves have created for our Tourism, Culture and Arts fraternity, and not a high-heeled globe-trotter with a bigger appetite for being a tourist in foreign lands than attracting tourists home.
Certainly, you my very good friend with whom I have a close relationship has not been that leader you promised to be. And we are disappointed.
Fact that I am “whining” on social media is an indication that even those of us who say we are your friends cannot reach you anymore. And I am not alone…. several key stakeholders in the arts have suffered same.
Madam get up and work!!! Even the President, at his age, says he is in a hurry…..
Let me get another pen and a new pad.
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Source: Citinewsroom.com
